17TH CENTURY BRITISH TOKENS

This series of tokens, covered
in books by Boyne, Williamson, and Dickinson — (see bibliography) — were
first issued in London in 1648. By
the time they were suppressed by the King of England in 1772-1774, their use had
spread to all of England, and most of Ireland and Wales. None were produced or
used in Scotland — they were not needed there, as a good supply of small coinage
had been issued by the government — which, at that time, was a separate entity
from that of England. It can be seen, then, that if the English government had
supplied enough coin — tokens would not have been needed — and would not have
been issued.

Most of the tokens were struck
issues, using copper or brass — though they are known in a few other metals. All
of the earliest pieces were farthings — varying in diameter from 14 to 22 mm in
general. The pieces struck for municipalities were usually in the 20-22 mm
range, those issued by merchants of the smaller sizes.
The farthing issues, other than the municipal issues, seldom mentioned
their value on the token. The first halfpenny seen is dated 1656.
Still uncommon then, the halfpenny became the dominant issue after 1664.
A few penny tokens were also issued, most in use in Wales and the north
of England.

When looking at Ireland,
however, we find that the penny was the most common — although they were mostly
the size of the English farthing pieces!!

The vast majority of the
tokens are round — or as round as they could make them. Around 1668, a few other
shapes were tried. These include
heart-shaped tokens, diamond shapes, square pieces, and octagonal tokens. Most
of these are quite rare, in demand, and command very high prices today.

Most of the tokens contain a
pictorial device. Many have the arms of trading guilds — the Grocer’s arms,
Bricklayer’s arms, and so forth. Used to show what trade the issuer was in, it
was a quick guide for the new owner of the piece. A fascinating part of these
tokens is the variety of spelling seen. Oftentimes, the spelling seen on the
tokens is done phonetically — the actual spelling ignored. There are towns with
numerous issuers where the town is spelled in a different way each time —
leaving us to figure out their actual location. It must be noted, however, that
no particular standard was in effect — and really none of the spellings can be
considered incorrect. Rhymes — humor — and play on words — are often seen as
well. The issuer’s name is usually included on the token — sometimes in a
straightforward manner, other times by use of pictures.
Thus, a token issued by one “Harbottle” has a pictorial of a hare and a
bottle.

Why were they issued? And what
possessed the population to think that they could issue them? After all, for
centuries it had been the King’s Prerogative to issue money of any kind. If one
were to take it upon themselves to issue “money”— in any form — they would have
been subject to the King’s law — which was usually understood to be death.
This was not a law that many wished to test.

For the answer, we need to
look at what was happening at the time. King Charles I was beheaded in 1649.
For the first time in centuries, the victor — Cromwell — did not move to
install another king. He declared a Commonwealth, with no king at its head.
Cromwell was named “Lord Protector” of the Commonwealth — a post he held
until his death in 1658. His son
took the post for another two years, at which time the Monarchy was restored.
With no king on the throne — there WAS no King’s Prerogative when it came
to coining money. One could not be put to death for flouting a law that was no
longer valid. On top of this, the
civil war that had raged since 1642 had left the country very short of any kind
of coin. The merchants were hard pressed to carry on their businesses.
With the law out of the way — the people took over.
The token coinage was born.

How many tokens were made? No one knows for sure — Boyne (1858) estimated that there were around
20,000 different issuers. Williamson (1891) accepted that figure, and listed 12,700 examples that had been
found. Dickinson, in 1986, found no reason not to agree with the original estimate of issuers — 20,000 — but by this
time 14,000 different issues had been found. When they were suppressed in 1672 —
with a later warning to the stragglers in 1674 — most of the tokens were
destroyed or melted. Thus, many of the 14,000 issues known have but a few to
look at — many are but one of a kind. The most plentiful of the tokens are the municipal issues — which were
far greater in number than the private, merchant issued tokens. Many of the
merchants only issued enough to do business within their own neighborhood —
often the tokens issued by a small town merchant were only used within an area
of a few blocks of his store. Thus, such a merchant would only issue a small number — and with most destroyed in
1672-4, what is left is often only one or two. As can be seen from the figures
above, there are about 6,000 issuers whose tokens have not been found at all.

With the issue of Royal Farthings and Halfpennies in 1672, there was no longer any need for the
“People’s Tokens” — but those that remain are interesting, indeed.
The above is but a thumbnail sketch of the history of the tokens. For
further reading, see the bibliography.

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